Petrello "Petey" DePeplesham
Player: Gehrig Age: 38 Lifepaths: City Born, Moneylender, Merchant, Magnate Affiliations: Representative of retcon Westgate, political ploc, able to hide away with the Oromo (show copper hospitality symbol; disc the size of a large coin) 751 CoH? (Are CoH 10,000 Doles? If so it's accurate but jfc) contact with Count of Ruthinia Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits Beliefs # Now that I've partitioned off "95%" of the treasure for the Oromo mining camp, I'm going to send word out to the Oromo clans that I wish to settle some business with the troupe. As a show of good faith, I'm going to hand it over willingly and enthusiastically, in retroactive exchange for the token of hospitality among the Oromo. That'll get one financial entanglement off my plate, which will be a nice change of pace. # Nills, the archivist who is working with me in the Depository, has presented me with a document that shows that my family owes roughly 20 million Doles to the Valois family. This document, according to my father's records, is actually legitimate, and far worse, the Crown will soon about it thanks to the archivist's goddamn sense of duty. I can't off him easily, as he could very well be a member of the House of the Loyal Hound. Same reason I can't bribe him. I think I'll have to use my new political position, as well as my accounting skills, to blow some smoke up peoples' asses; I remember there was a number-crunching machine in the Dim, and if I can hire Xavier Cantello to help restore it upon recovery, I'll create so many financial inquests to my House that they won't have the man-hours to enforce mine until I can pay off the Valois on my own time under the table. Settling the family debts will hurt my pocketbook, but it'll be one less piece of bullshit hanging over my and my father's heads. # Boris is throwing a big shindig. I'm obviously going to be making an appearance, and hob-nobbing with the other VIPs about the Valley. I'll pull Boris aside and see the extent to which he wants to divest his less savory assets. I could use some more cash flow in these trying times, and buying some investments wholesale and selling them off piecemeal will help facilitate that. I might put the pressure on him by recounting him some details of his Roxanne divorce fraud I overheard from the closet, and pass it off as him having holes in the security of his assets that are holding him back. # I've successfully convinced the King of Crowstead to go to war with the ruling Rusanov family of Ruthinia. The ensuing coup will cause some financial flux among the Ruthinians; if I provide bankrolling for those who get swept up in the mercantile democratic push, that will generate some good cash and contacts both. Gotta keep spreading that web, DePeplesham-style. Now Papa Shep will maybe be a bit happier with my performance. Beliefs (resolved) Zak has, as expected, declined the Count's offer to kill Boris. I have the decree from the Count, and I think my best bet is to bring it to the King and inform him that the Ruthinian executive head is trying to kill Nobles under the king's rule, and that ignoring it would be highly problematic for PR. I'll also mention the lack of popular support for the Count in Ruthinia; long story short, let's coup those Ruthkies and establish a pro-Crowstead, pro-business puppet government. The Count of Ruthinia has tasked me with hiring an assassin against Boris. I'll run this by Azazel and see what he thinks. Do we defraud the Count? If so, we'll need a way to fool him with a fake body. Do we actually get Boris killed? If so, we'll have to figure out a way to not have the Fruits and Bratva after us. I'll pitch the contract to Azazel and leave it open-ended, and we'll go from there. I've given Zak the info he needs to kill the Fruits. It is public knowledge that I am working with Fruit documents to help solve the murder, so I'll need to figure out a way to distance myself if necessary, because I might be a suspect. I'll need to go over the documents and see who's easiest to frame as a mole. Officer Vaughan MacShane is my first thought; Internal Affairs has been up his ass, and his finances are... poor. It shouldn't be hard to forge a paper trail that incriminates him. I've offered the King my free services as an archival accountant for the ancient documents in the Depository. I will be running numbers and analyzing the financial state of each party mentioned, many of whom have living descendants/organizations today. I have to turn everything over to the Crown, but I have a sharp memory--I bet I can memorize some kompromat and keep it in my pocket as leverage for when I get my political career off the ground, now that I am again above the ground. Zak has asked me to find information on two Inixian cops he needs to kill, O'Shawnny and Roiland. I will offer my services to the chief of law enforcement to look at officers' demographic information (including addresses of course), payments, assets, etc. to "streamline" the process and aid the investigation against the cop killer that is plaguing my beautiful city and causing my constituents to live in fear. Once I know the pertinent information for Zak, I will funnel that to him and wash my hands of those two in particular. This should also be a good PR stunt, you know, me helping the local do-good constables and whatnot. I'm getting into politics and Noble concerns now, and accordingly, House DePeplesham needs an enforcement arm. Put simply, I want a skilled assassin who knows the Faceless on retainer. I plan to hire Azazel indefinitely; first stop Jonsland, next stop anyone else who gets in my way. With my scheming and his disguise-y, knife-y ways, we will be unstoppable. I would like some more time to pore through these old contracts and deeds. Before we leave the palace, I will offer the kings' representatives my services in accounting free of charge in order to compile the information and turn it all over to royal authorities. It would be enough just to know some noble and corporate weak points. Now that I've secured the Thistle Sisters' cash cache, we'll need to get it out without attracting Oromo attention. Finding another way out would be ideal. We'll have to keep pressing ever onward--my hunch is that we'll have to go deeper before we can discover a new passageway out. We're currently seeking the Library under the Dim. I've always been the bookish type, and I imagine there's some valuable information down there, maybe even some kompromat vis-a-vis lineages and financial contracts. I'll be seeking these out in particular so that I can sell off, or maybe blackmail, some nobles and burghers. Maybe it'll give me a leg up on House Aragon. Azazel's dragon is a hotheaded dick who lusts after gold and human flesh. I possess an abundance of both gold and enemies; if I convert some of my assets to gold and give the dragon a bachelor pad, I could present Wifey Aragon the vaults, with my "delicate security system"... a hungry dragon. Hello inheritance, goodbye schemes of murderous mother-in-law. And that's only the beginning; with a dragon to then dispose of, I'll finance a quest with payment being the gold I gave Flametongue. I get good PR, Noble status, and hopefully a net gain in assets to boot. Classic DePeplesham move. Boris made an offer to Flametongue that he likely can't follow through on. I may have to give him a bit of a payday loan. Surely keeping on the better side of a dragon is worth some underworld or real estate assets...I could use a popular tavern as a money laundering operation. I've managed to slip my Doppelgänger bonds once, and I tried to throw hands at the guard who was keeping us down. I need to be smarter next time: the first thing I'm doing if I manage to slip out again is to free the guard. If I can't free my bonds, I'll have to distract the guard so that the Royals have enough unsupervised time to escape themselves. They're our best bet to topple the doppel and get out of here. Ernest Jonsland once showed me his ass-cheek tattoo of an ancient secret rune denoting a secret cache of weaponry, supposedly pre-Apocalypse. He's always been a history buff, so I have no reason to suspect its authenticity. I'll be keeping an eye out for this rune down here in case it leads me to the fabled magitech weaponry vault. That would be a good way to ingratiate myself with the Crown, if not make some extra cash. My first goal in the Dim is to survive. Beyond that, I'm looking for two things: ungodly sums of money, and things that can be exchanged for ungodly sums of money. I've heard about some magical doodads down here, especially in the deeper places. I'm sure there's an armory filled with valuable weapons at least as nifty as that elemental rifle, and I'm sure that I can sit on some loot until I find an ideal buyer. I won't be picky about what I collect, though, as long as I make off like a bandit in the end. I'll face steep competition from the Oromo with finding the money caches. Many bandits and smugglers have hidden their loot down here, including the recently deceased Thistle Sisters, who brought all manner of contraband in and out of the Valley. Rumor has it that the Oromo have sent spelunkers down here to find their cache, and I intend to beat them to the punch. Rockwell MacArthur, one of my bodyguards, is being blackmailed by persons unknown, and he's being annoyingly tight-lipped. He did mention that it's an underground player in Greymist, so it's likely a problem he picked up pretty recently. I'll have to investigate and deal with this so that my team can be as clear-headed as possible, especially since it's election season.-->dead, resolved by default There are rumors among the nobles of gold stashes hidden in the Dim. I can't trust my underlings to deal with this without my presence, and although sneaking onto that drunkard Beevitch's property unnoticed won't be difficult, a caravan of spelunkers might draw too much outward attention. I suppose my guards and I are down for some adventure--what's the worst that can happen? House Aragon probably wants to kill me anyway, and I could stand to get a little more money off the books. Now to get my adventuring gear properly tailored... I overheard at the tail end of a meeting an interesting tidbit from Ruthinian Southgate representative Grzegorz "Beevitch" Brzęczyszczykiewicz. He whispered to his aide about "securing his room in the deep place." After looking over what the public records say about his residence, there is an expunged bit of a document that mentions "a sealed opening, the tampering of which is Highly Illegal." I can put two and two together; his gaudy little bungalow must be built on an entryway to the Dim. I'll have to bribe some city contractors to explore the property and locate it. --> We got lured in by Rakshasa before we could scope it out. Welp... I'm going to accompany Boris on his hangman's walk to Ruthinia. I've recently made a good Ruthinian merchant contact, and I'd like a bigger piece of the Ruthinskiy pie. The Count himself, according to Boris, has been skimming money off the top; I'm going to try to convince him to hire my book-cooking services, for a reasonable commission of course. I'll need to make things up with House Aragon. I'm pretty sure my marriage chances are irrevocably fucked, but I at least need to smooth things over and reconcile if I can. I will pledge my service to the house and do their bidding should they request it. I'm pulling comfortably ahead in the polls, but it's possible that Valitova could make the stars align in her favor. I'll need to keep stumping, and probably need to grease some rich wheels a little further in Northgate and greater Crowstead if I'm to secure things. I'll need to find some older money to hobnob with, and hopefully make a good impression. Amelia and I are going to have to get some of the Valmen on our side. As Master of Coin, I've been facilitating the publicizing of assets to entice them financially; we need to go and talk to them and propose an offer that they can't...well...shouldn't refuse. Ernest has been selling weapons to Black Briar. Good luck tearing him away from such a lucrative contract; that man makes *me* look like a saint. Ernest and I are going to be co-funding "the King's army," as he calls it, so let's see if I can't loosen up his lips after a while and get him to change contracts. If not, I may have to have him dealt with--maybe ZakZazel has an opening? My attempts to contact Azazel showed me that most of my criminal contacts have dried up. R.I.P. Arbor and Huntington. I don't want to just be limited to Boris for my criminal element, especially since he's too busy being whatever volatile ruler he fashions himself as this week. But I'll need to keep him close. Why don't I start meeting regularly with him in his bar, now that he and Roxanne have smoothed things over? I'll learn more about him, get him less paranoid toward me, and if I prove to him that I can help him out, I can start networking through his Bratva folks. Added bonus: this gives me a bit of a Ruthinian edge, which would help me get to know my hopefully future Northgate constituents.On the subject of Ernest, I think Amelia and her leafborne friends are going to prove quite useful. She and I need to have a sit-down and coordinate those buddies of hers--what motivates them? Money? Do they want weapons? Because they're about to get a shitload. If they ambush Ernest's out-of-town shipments and cinch off Black Briar's main weapons supply, that will give them what they want, slow down BB, and keep the conflict out of our borders for that much longer. I've been bettering myself over the last few months and working on my political influence. How am I going to rectify the differences between myself and Amadeus if we're working together, especially since Valitova is ostensibly a better fit for that naïve hippy? I'm giving my big speech soon, and I'll need to make sure I bring enough fence-sitters to my side. In order to impress the Northgate voting populace, I'll shuttle the money I've earned from my new Greymist assets to Northgate and invest in some profitable "public works." That money will go back to my holdings in Greymist, of course; whether it happens after November or after a few years depends on how the election goes. I will contact Ernest Jonsland, an old financial affiliate from my days at the markets. He's a weapons dealer who specializes in bulk transactions, and rumor has it he has a new exclusive contract with Blackbriar. Given our history, I should be able to butter him up enough to buy an in with her and get a sense of what she wants from him with all those weapons. Good ol' Ernest never operates without a local insider, which means someone in Blackbriar's chain of command has to be somewhere in Crowstead. Let's see if I can't nip that in the bud. I managed to get my hands on some juicy Greymist business, with a connection to Amelia Morel to boot. I'm going to have to help her sell some of the assets she acquired in the coup to their "rightful owners," as she says, in order to further the connection between our families and establish goodwill. After all, if things don't work out in Northgate, Papa Shep and I could always use a backup financial romping ground. I will coordinate a search with the pro-Morel rebel faction to find the true heir to Greymist. Should I encounter her, I will help to reinstate her in order to keep the line-of-succession paradigm functional. I have given Boris my family's contact information if he should find himself in Northgate. The next step for me is to offer financial protection and potential investments into his whoremongering from the less savory family accounts--after we finish our coup, of course. For the time being, because we're handling different aspects of the liberation, it is imperative that we not be seen together, just in case. I will use whatever means I can--including extortion if necessary--to infiltrate Greymist law enforcement and develop a list of suspected pro-Morel rebels. Under the guise of Northgate-nobility-backed interrogation, I will offer financial backing to these rebels in exchange for secrecy and influence in the government that would rise from the ashes. The Vals likely haven't invested in proper document security. It occurs to me that I could doctor the deeds, charters, and other such documents to ensure that Morel's right to rule can be legally proven enough to win the fence-sitters among the general populace. If I can spin it such that the Vals are blamed for sabotaging the local government, this will help advance my political career if I'm seen as a whistle-blower. That Greymist thing just went topsy-turvy. I'll need to contact Papa Shep and see where he's at with this--what exactly am I to do to minimize damage here? I get the feeling I'm going to have to burn a little social grace to cover up my part in the chaos. Instincts # There's no deal I can't spin in my favor, no matter how stacked against me. # I always try to be at the service of all my betters--you never know how political tides will change. # If I see a means of cementing my family's good name abroad, I will take it. Traits * Self-Satisfied 1 * Callous 1 * Affinity for Business * Greedy 1 * Mind for Small Details 2 * Keen Sense of Humor 1 Artha Fate: 13 Persona: 25 Deeds: 2 Stats & Attributes 9M 13P p.42 Wounds Skills Gear, Contacts, Reputations, Spells Contacts: Reputation: Spells: Skills Being Learned Category:PC